The Global Drought Observatory (GDO) Platform – An Overview
Drought Module
This overview aims to introduce the basics of the Copernicus GDO. To get familiar with the platform, we recommend to open the GDO website and follow the steps shown in this document on your own computer.
Copernicus’s GDO provides a good first step to get an overview of ongoing or past droughts. The GDO consists of several modules: A map view, written reports and analyses on drought conditions, a drought event database as well as a download portal. We will first focus on the map viewer, as it provides a fast and reliable way to assess drought conditions across the world.
To enter the GDO map viewer portal, visit https://edo.jrc.ec.europa.eu/gdo You will see the main interface with the map in the center (Figure 1).
On the right-hand side, you can find an overview of country-level statistics based on current conditions, showing the percentages (based on population within each class) that is classified as high (red), medium (orange) or low (yellow) in regards to impact on agriculture; a fact sheet including detailed information on the shown data can be found here. Clicking on the “i” icon next to a country name reveals more detailed statistics (Figure 2).
With the magnifying glass button, you can zoom to the selected country on the map view with one click. This way, you can get a good overview over the conditions throughout the country and identify hotspots as well as less affected regions (Figure 3).
Using the date picker on the right-hand side, you can track conditions from as far back as 2010. Data are provided for three 10-day intervals for each month (Figure 4).
To download data for further analysis via GIS, click the download button on the top right of the map view. You will be redirected to the data download page (Figure 5).
Once on the download page (Figure 6), you must select the region to download data for first (1). Since only Europe or the complete world are offered, leave it at “world”.Next, you can select which data to download (2). A variety of useful layers that are used throughout the GDO methodology are available as well as the agricultural impact layer that it shown on the map view by default. Once you decide which parameter to download, check the boxes for all the years that you want to analyze (3). Finally, leave the drop-down menu for the format as is (“GeoTIFF”) and click “Download” (4). A zip-file will now be downloaded which contains your data selection in ready-to-use format that can directly be loaded into QGIS, ArcGIS and other GIS software.
By clicking on “Drought Reports” in the top menu, you can access the written reports that were produced for specific events or time-frames (Figure 7). These reports may be especially useful when researching past droughts.
The final option within the top menu is the “Database of Drought Events” (1) found on the right of the drought reports button (Figure 8). This interface offers a general overview of historic droughts up to the year 2016. By moving the slider across the timeline (2), you can see droughts for the selected time on the fly. On the map view, countries are colored according to a drought score with 0 being non-drought conditions and 25 standing for a most severe drought.
When hovering over a country, you can see useful statistics (3) on the specific drought event, such as duration, onset and end. The timing of the drought’s peak is also denoted. You are also free to switch parameters (e. g. Standard Precipitation Index) on the right-hand side panel. Additionally, a list of the most severe droughts recorded during the entire period can be accessed by clicking the “top events” tab (4) on the left side of the timeline.
In the case of Eastern Africa, an additional platform exists that makes use of the GDO’s methodology, adapted for better suitability for the region. The platform, called East African Drought Watch (Figure 9) can also be accessed free of charge and might be more suitable for use in eastern countries.
